FINRA FINRA-SERIES-63 - Questions & Answers

Which of the following orders can an Administrator issue without providing prior notice?

When selling shares of an investment company to a client, an agent must provide the client with

I. the fund's prospectus, which provides information on any loads or other fees as well as historical return
information.
II. information about any breakpoints if it is a load fund along with an explanation of a letter of intent III. information regarding the investment adviser used by the fund IV. an explanation of the various loads and fees outlined in the fund's prospectus

Sam Shade had his agent's license revoked by the state of Washington for repeatedly making misleading claims about various investment to investors. He had had it with all the rain anyway and decided to move to the sunshine state of Florida. His brother-in-law was a computer whiz who made money on the side (more than his day job provided, in fact) by supplying illegal immigrants with official-looking documentation, including social security numbers. Sam Shade became Ian Creed in a few clicks of the mouse. As Ian Creed, Sam was hired by Sunny Investment Advisers, an investment adviser firm located in the Florida Keys, in a clerical role. As such, Sam/Ian had access to the confidential information of the firm's clients, which he and his brother-in-law utilized for the purpose of identity theft. Under the Uniform Securities Act guidelines, when Sam and his brother-in-law are caught in their illegal activities.

Mr. Bigwig, CEO of HiGrowth Corporation, meets with the president of BigFee Investment Bankers and arranges for BigFee to underwrite an Initial Public Offering (IPO) for the firm. When the IPO comes to market, GetErDone Broker-Dealers is part of the selling group, which handles the sale of the stock to the public.

In this scenario, which party is the broker?

Don is a state-registered agent with GetErDone Broker-Dealers. He has three other friends who are licensed agents-Huey, Dewey, and Louie. Huey is also an agent with GetErDone Broker-Dealers. Dewey is an agent with a different firm in the same city, CanDo Broker-Dealers. Louie works for a Broker-Dealer with an office just across the state line.

Don can enter a commission-splitting agreement with:

Alice Wonder called her broker on Tuesday, August 10th, with a market order to buy 10 calls on the stock of Abbott Laboratories. Under normal conditions, Alice will have to pay for the calls on:

In its prospectus, the YourMoney Mutual Fund provides charts and tables of its average annual return over the past year, three years, five years, and ten years. The fund's return has indeed been phenomenal over this time period, beating the S&P 500 Index by at least 15%. The prospectus states that this is because the fund invests in securities that are riskier and that, therefore, an investor can expect the fund to continue earning a return higher than the S&P 500 Index.

Is YourMoney guilty of any security violations?

Constance is an investment adviser representative. She told one of her clients that he should put at least 15% of his investment monies in a U.S. government bond mutual fund.

She explained that she believed that he required this percentage to meet his liquidity needs, and U.S. government bond funds are risk-free. A few months later, the client needed to sell some of his fund shares in order to pay some medical bills and was surprised to discover that he lost money on the sale because the net asset value of the fund had dropped.

Was Constance guilty of any securities violations?

Ari Gaunt is employed by a small state-registered broker-dealer and has recently received notification that his application to be a registered agent of the state has been accepted. Now that he is licensed to execute transactions for the firm's clients, Ari has a batch of business cards printed up, with a picture of himself on the right-hand side of the card. Underneath the picture is the caption, "State-Approved Agent."
Will Ari be violating any securities laws if he distributes these business cards?

promissory note that promised to pay interest at the rate of 8% a quarter, with a repayment of principal at the end of two years. The money would be used by Mr. Smooth to rehab a few beach condo units that had been severely hurricane-damaged and that Mr. Smooth had been able to purchase for "pennies on the dollar," or so he said. The first units would be completed within a month, and the rents would be used to make the interest payments. The investment was almost as risk-free as U.S. government bonds, Mr.
Smooth claimed.
the promised interest payments.

Have there been any violation of securities laws in this instance?